


The Unknown Depths

by RareHabit



Category: Sherlock (TV), Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, M/M, POV Sherlock Holmes, Post-Episode: s04e03 The Final Problem, Post-Season/Series 04, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Sibling Incest, holmescest
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-18
Updated: 2018-09-02
Packaged: 2019-01-19 02:11:03
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12400962
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RareHabit/pseuds/RareHabit
Summary: Sherlock has been feeling as though he is under water ever since the events at Sherrinford.Nothing is as it should be, has been, was supposed to be.Tags will be added as the story develops.Not containing explicit language or sex (as of yet), but rated explicit because incest.





	1. Drowning

**Author's Note:**

> Each chapter will be 100 words, so if there are more than a few (new) chapters posted I'd recommend hitting that "Entire Work"-button to save yourself the annoyance of having to click forward every other minute. All chapters have been prompted by an image.
> 
> Promp 1: Person floating underwater

# *~*~*~**~*~*~**~*~*~*

It is all rather surreal. 

Sherlock has been feeling as though he is under water ever since the events at Sherrinford, sometimes closer to the surface than others, everything around him distorted and muted by the murky colours and texture of the sea. 

It has been getting better, half a year has passed, but nothing is as it should be, has been, was supposed to be. 

He often finds himself with dully roaring ears, blinking desperately to rid himself of the blurry images before his eyes, drawing deep painful breaths to quell the stifling feeling of anxiety in his chest.


	2. On the other side

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 2: Man looking out of a window

He is standing in front of the white framed window, neither looking at nor seeing anything, deep inside the swirling thoughts of his ceaseless mind.

Another few months have passed, the leaves again changing to their reds, yellows, and browns outside.

Were he to focus his gaze on the other side of the glass, he would see the signs of autumn in the trees across the road.

As the temperature has been dropping, so have his attacks lessened; they are fewer and farther between, no longer as debilitating.

Sherlock is no longer at Baker Street.

The fatigue still lingers, though.


	3. Escape to the country

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 3: Picnic (basket) in the woods

He has Mycroft—who is battling his own demons, imagined as well as all too real—to thank for the fact that he is no longer even in London.

As it were, Mycroft was the one to realise how far Sherlock had fallen into the abyss and had quickly arranged for a shared weekend in the countryside, “for your sanity, as well as mine, brother dear” as he had put it at the time.

Drinking tea on a blanket in the middle of a forest?

Sherlock hadn’t even protested, let alone tried to escape his brother.

So much has changed.


	4. Boring

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 4: A pavement with heaps of brown leaves

Mycroft is still running the British government, nothing less than an early death will ever stop him from doing his job; something which Sherlock prefers to not think, much less joke, about.

Sherlock hadn’t been prepared to go back to the noises and scents of the capital after their peaceful stay in the country. 

Instead, he had been walking the pavements of Edinburgh for a few weeks, unsuccessfully trying to keep his head silent, only to realise that what was missing—making him feel fragmented, disoriented, breathless—was a who.

Mycroft.

Existence had become dull.

Some things stay the same.


	5. Signs of home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 5: Bottle cap with text on the inside

The stillness of his and Mycroft’s mutual meditation and low murmured conversations, something of which he would have never thought them capable, had quietened his mind.

Without it, Sherlock had been left feeling weary to the bone.

Having found a bottle cap with the text “climb a tree” inside one of the pockets of his Belstaff, Sherlock had decided—uncharacteristically—that it was as good of a sign as any that it was time to go back home.

Home, which was Mycroft, who had taken one lingering look at him and seen it all.

“Oh.”

Nothing left to hide.

“Yes.”


	6. In the palm of your hand

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 6: Couple holding hands

They are both known outside of the UK, but Mycroft mainly within certain exclusive circles and Sherlock is not so famous that he is immediately recognised everywhere.

They are definitely not recognised as brothers.

Still, they have to be careful.

Another helpful fact is that CCTV cameras are not as common in other European cities as they are in London.

Sherlock would never have thought that something as innocent and straightforward as taking a stroll in the fading light of an early Stockholm evening, holding his older brothers hand, would be so earth-shattering, life-changing. Everything.

This is where _they_ begin.


	7. Embracing rest

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 7: two people, wearing underwear, embracing on bed

So here he is, not looking out of the window of a classy, old money, old town flat in Sweden.

Until arms encircle him from behind and, with a deep breath through his nose, he is pulled out of his trance.

Neither of them has been particularly physically demonstrative in the past, even for siblings, but that too has changed.

Last night, he fell asleep resting his ear against Mycroft’s heartbeat.

Tonight, he will fall asleep wearing a pair of Mycroft’s pants, his brothers left arm across his shoulders and right-hand middle finger resting in the crease of his arse.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Old town, Gamla stan, is a beautiful part of central Stockholm.
> 
> Kudos are love, comments are banana biscuits for my brain bunnies <3


	8. More than words

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 8: an old piano

The next morning, he wakes up to gentle aromas of buttery toast and too milky tea, tender piano notes playing softly in the background.

It often isn’t a necessity for him and his brother to speak using words, they can convey most things with a glance, the raise of an eyebrow, the twitch of a muscle.

This is how they spend their day, communicating with their eyes and their bodies.

In the late evening, he is left alone again; Mycroft goes back to London to rule the kingdom once more.

It is more distressing than Sherlock would have ever imagined.


	9. Head against a brick wall

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 9: old brick apartment buildings

He stays in Stockholm for a month before it is time to move on: Copenhagen, Zürich, Vienna, Berlin, then Madrid.

Mycroft joins him as often as he is able, which isn’t often enough.

The city never sleeps, making his too-early-too-late night walks along the Gran Vía and its surrounding areas close enough to endurable.

What doesn’t help is the continuous recurrence of weariness whenever he is without Mycroft, memories of himself aiming a gun at his brother’s chest keeping him awake, or the prevalence of illegal substances.

The pull is ever-present, but he has so much more to lose now.


	10. Benefits of caring

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 10: footpath through park at night

It is on a damp winters night that Sherlock realises quite abruptly that he is done with it all.

He is walking through a park, the glow from the street lights made otherworldly by swirling auras of cold humidity, when he eventually decides that enough is enough.

His heart may have been bruised, but it is far from broken.

The thought of going back to London tenses him up slightly, but he _needs_ to be close to his brother more than anything else to properly function.

Releasing a foggy breath from deep within his lungs, he instantly feels more relaxed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _"All lives end. All hearts are broken. Caring is not an advantage, Sherlock."_


End file.
